06 October 2006

One year after the South Asia earthquake, hundreds of thousands of survivors are still living in tents and temporary shelters. The earthquake devastated an area 1½ times the size of Wales, and rebuilding homes and lives remains a huge challenge.

ActionAid is spending an average of £200,000 a month providing cash grants, support for businesses, training in masonry, carpentry and electrics, providing livestock and opening health centres.

But, other factors are conspiring to slow reconstruction to a snail’s pace.

A confusing compensation system has left many survivors still waiting for the cash they need to start rebuilding their homes.

While survivors wait – in endless queues outside government offices or by the remains of their homes for an inspector to record the rubble as proof of rights to compensation – the men are not working, the women are stuck in shelters and children are catching diseases from unsanitary conditions.

Rising costs of labour, transport and materials and delays to rebuilding the infrastructure – most villages still have no roads, schools or water – compound the problem.

Jack Campbell, ActionAid Emergencies officer, said: “Temporary shelters saved millions of lives last winter, but they are not a permanent solution.

“ActionAid is committed to helping survivors rebuild their lives over the long term and getting them back to something approaching normality. As a second winter approaches, the logjam around rebuilding people’s homes must be quickly resolved.” 

ActionAid response
Over the last year ActionAid has helped nearly 250,000 people in Pakistan and India.

In Pakistan, ActionAid has supplied more than 4,500 shelters, treated more than 20,000 people in our emergency medical camps, provided communities with 7,500 food packs and set up 21 community centres. These are places for people to plan reconstruction, for survivors to train in new skills, like masonry or carpentry, and receive psychological counselling and health support. In India, ActionAid is providing survivors with a wage in exchange for labour on collective rebuilding projects.  It has also started working in schools to help people deal with natural disasters.